Editor’s note: This story has been updated to add a comment from the Trump administration. A previous version of this story also misspelled U.S. Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez’s name. OPB regrets the error.
A team from the U.S. Chemical Safety Board is in Longview to lead an investigation into the fatal chemical tank rupture that killed 11 people at the Nippon Dynawave Packaging Co. paper mill last week.
But if President Donald Trump’s proposed budget is approved, funding for the federal agency’s work might run out before the investigation is complete.
FILE - Aerial views of the Nippon Dynawave Packaging Co. in Longview, Wash., showing the scene of a chemical tank failure that occurred in the morning on May 26, 2026.
Brandon Swanson / OPB
U.S. Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, who represents Southwest Washington in Congress, on Sunday called on the Trump administration to reconsider, and to instead fund the federal agency in charge of investigating chemical disasters.
“People want an unbiased, thorough investigation. They want safe jobs for people to come home at the end of the day and have real agency in how mill maintenance is organized and ordered,” Gluesenkamp Perez said in a video posted to social media.
The horrifying loss of life in Longview last week demands a thorough impartial investigation conducted by the independent watchdog Chemical Safety Board.
— Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (@RepMGP) May 31, 2026
Unfortunately the presidents proposed budget has zeroed out the CSB budget.
Next week, I’ll be making it my priority to… pic.twitter.com/3SqbDSASWJ
“An important partner of this is the watchdog agency, the Chemical Safety Board. Unfortunately their budget was zeroed out by the president in his proposed budget,” she said. “Fortunately, this appropriations bill will be in my committee jurisdiction.”
The U.S. House Appropriations Committee, of which Gluesenkamp Perez is a member, is set to discuss legislation that includes the agency’s funding on Wednesday.
Trump’s proposal, which would go into effect this October if his budget were approved by Congress, is the president’s sixth attempt to defund the CSB since he first took office in 2017, according to Safety+Health magazine. Separately, Republicans in Congress have proposed keeping the agency open but slashing its funds by more than 40%.
CSB, a small, nonregulatory independent federal agency, has a $14 million budget for the current fiscal year, which runs through Sept. 30.
The Trump administration told OPB on Monday that it views the CSB as “an unconstitutional independent agency that directly violates the prerogative of the President to oversee the executive branch as he sees fit.”
“Furthermore, CSB is redundant and duplicates authorities properly vested in EPA and OSHA,” a spokesperson for the Office of Management and Budget said in an emailed response to a query sent to the White House. “That is why the Trump Administration has proposed to eliminate CSB in every single budget we’ve produced.”
But CSB staff, who did not immediately respond to a Sunday afternoon request for comment, have pushed back against the Trump administration’s assertions about their agency, noting that theirs is the only federal agency that investigates chemical disasters.
Investigations generally run from six to 18 months, depending on complexity, but can take longer.
With funding only guaranteed through the end of September, that could affect the current attempt to understand what caused a 900,000-gallon tank of caustic paper-making chemicals known as “white liquor” to rupture, killing and injuring workers and leading to an environmental clean-up that’s still under way.
OPB was not able to reach Nippon Dynawave on Sunday for a comment on how cuts to CSB funding might affect the Longview mill’s future. Brian Wood, the director of support services for the company who is also a city councilor in neighboring Kelso, has previously said the company is “cooperating fully” with investigators.
U.S. Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington’s third congressional district speaks during a press conference at the Nippon Dynawave Packaging Co., where a chemical disaster occurred May 26 leaving two confirmed dead and nine missing and presumed dead, at the Longview, Wash., plant for kraft pulp, paper mill and liquid packaging on May 27, 2026. Washington Gov. Ferguson called it the “deadliest industrial tragedy in modern Washington state history.”
Eli Imadali / OPB
He’s defended the mill’s safety record in press conferences, though some family members of the 11 victims of the chemical disaster have raised concerns about its safety culture.
The CSB is theoretically run by a five-member board appointed to five-year terms by the president, and confirmed by the Senate. However, Trump has opted not to fill three open seats. That’s left the agency with only two people at its helm, both nominated by former President Joe Biden.
Gluesenkamp Perez said she wants to fill those open seats.
“My hope is that we’re able to work with the administration to ensure that people with real trades experience are appointed to that board – not a discussion of just lab conditions and a chemical engineering degree, but an understanding that mill conditions are not lab conditions, people who have done that work, whose lives are at risk are on that board as well, are steering the investigation,” she said.
